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At Long Last, Cuomo and Molinaro Set to Debate Tuesday
Hawkins, the Green Party candidate, said his team was exploring its legal options to see if the debate violates the Federal Communications Commission's rules on providing equal air time for all candidates.
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After days of back and forth between Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and his challenger Republican Marc Molinaro, the two are both on board for a televised debate set to air 7 p.m. Tuesday on WCBS radio (AM 880) and WCBS-TV.
The debate comes just two weeks before the gubernatorial elections, and after weeks of pressure from Molinaro's camp for an in-person debate. The pressure peaked last week when the New York Post ran images of Cuomo photo-shopped in a chicken suit on their front-page for four consecutive days last week.
Molinaro accepted the terms of the CBS debate, which will be pre-taped at 1:30 p.m. and broadcast on their TV and radio stations at 7 p.m., but continued to push for debates in upstate venues, including one in Buffalo and another in the Southern Tier.
"New York and downstate voters deserve a debate and we have one, with another possibly to come, but upstate New York under Andrew Cuomo’s failed policies has lagged the state and the nation, they deserve better," Molinaro said Monday.
Three other candidates for governor on the ballot on Nov. 6th are still excluded from the WCBS debate Tuesday night. They include Libertarian Larry Sharpe, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, and former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner.
"New Yorkers should be outraged," said Larry Sharpe's spokeswoman, Trishanda Barhorst.
Miner, who is running on the post-partisan Serve America Movementline, echoed those concerns.
"A single debate without all candidates hurts democracy. A single debate in New York City ignores the interests of Upstate voters," she said. "A single debate won’t provide enough opportunity to examine Andrew Cuomo’s record or anyone's vision for the state's future."
Hawkins, the Green Party candidate, said his team was exploring its legal options to see if the debate violates the Federal Communications Commission's rules on providing equal air time for all candidates.
All candidates had been invited to a debate hosted by the New York Conference of Mayors, also scheduled for Tuesday in Albany. But it was suddenly canceled Sunday night. Matt Hamilton, a spokesman for the conference, said the debate had been called off because of “various logistical hurdles,” and refused to specify what those hurdles were.
A second debate hosted by League of Women Voters of New York will take place at 6 p.m., Nov. 1, in Albany. A spokesman for Cuomo's campaign has not said whether or not the Democrat will participate, but the four other candidates have agreed to attend.